


Just Like Her

by idrilswritings (idrilhadhafang)



Series: Annie Tyler serial [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Original Fiction, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 10:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19104964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilswritings
Summary: A crash-landing leads to two interesting developments between two adversaries.





	Just Like Her

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Rivals to Lovers

  
“Tell me how you got these scars.”  
  
Annie Tyler sits next to him, looking up at him, on this miserable swamp planet where they’re both stranded, and Louis Cross is struck, suddenly, by how delicate she looks. Looks can be deceiving, of course; he knows this woman is a scrappy fighter. He knows that she’s more than capable of wielding a weapon. Knows that she’s clever, skilled, more than a worthy adversary to him. It doesn’t stop him from seeing how doe-eyed she looks, how small.  
  
“You’ve heard of them,” he says. “I got them in battles. Multiple battles. You know what they used to call me? Immortal. The man that time couldn’t stop.”  
  
“It must be very lonely, living that life.”  
  
Louis can’t help but laugh. “I’m not lonely.” And yet he can feel it, deep in his bones. He can feel it, deep in his heart. Can feel it throughout his body, everywhere. What a peculiar feeling, loneliness. He’s never thought he needed anyone but himself and yet, here he is.  
  
It seems this woman is all too good at bringing out these emotions in him.  
  
“It’s lonelier than you think,” she says, “Being out there like this. Doing nothing but fighting.”  
  
“I do it for my people.”  
  
“An admirable goal,” she says, but he can hear her underlying worry. _The road to hell is paved with good intentions._ Isn’t that what the old Earth sayings said? Louis shivers to think about it.  
  
But he denies it. “I’ve done nothing wrong. Is it so wrong to want to protect your planet?”  
  
“It’s what you do in its name. What you’ve done to others and yourself.”  
  
“Are we not more alike than we think, Annie Tyler?”  
  
She pauses. “I don’t kill people unless I have to.”   
  
“Same with me. We both have noble goals. We both want the best. To keep people safe. It burns in your blood, doesn’t it? That desire to do good. To heal. With you, it’s like a compulsion. Like with me when I was young.” He’s close to her, strokes a lock of hair out of her eyes. She looks very much guilty. People she couldn’t save, people she lost. “It’s not your fault, Annie.”  
  
Annie swallows. She’s very much trying to fight the tears that threaten to come.  
  
He continues. “We’re more like each other than we know. I suppose that’s the nature of mirror images.”  
  
“I don’t want to be your mirror image.”  
  
 _Right on, beautiful._ He can’t help but admire her. Beautiful in her defiance, in her strength. “That’s the nature of...whatever we may be.”  
  
“Enemies?”  
  
“We wouldn’t be talking like this if we were.” Louis pauses as he speaks. “Maybe we’re more complicated than that.”  
  
“I don’t know if I like you,” Annie says. “As a person.”  
  
“You don’t have to. I certainly don’t blame you.” Sometimes, Louis thinks, he doesn’t know if he likes himself.  
  
***  
  
She has to take off from the swamp once the ship is fixed, and Louis can’t help but feel like a part of himself went missing with her. He feels...something for her, something that isn’t as straightforward as his other emotions. It should be simple. He should hate her for threatening to sabotage all he ever worked for. Instead, he feels a certain...tug of affection towards her.  
  
It’s ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. He shouldn’t feel anything but hate, but instead of killing her, he wants her at his side. He wants her happy. She won’t be happy among her companions, he knows it. He hurts for her thinking about it.   
  
He wants her...happy. And somehow having her with him makes him happy too. It’s a feeling that Louis hasn’t imagined that he’d feel, but here he is.  
  
“By Ares,” he murmurs. He doesn’t know what’s gotten into him. He’s not Romeo. He doesn’t want to play Romeo, and yet this woman, this Valkyrie, seems to have ensnared him all too easily.  
  
Happy.  
  
Louis wonders, absently, what that’s like.  
  
***  
  
Even as she sits among her companions, Annie Tyler can’t help but think of Louis Cross.  
  
They’re laughing, telling some old story from the past, before Cross started out on his crusade to make Ares strong. Annie can’t help but think of the way that he _touched_ her, the way that he simply knew what she was experiencing. She remembers what she heard about Cross, about how he had been fundamentally an idealist even growing up on a world that seemed determined to crush it out of him.  
  
Are they more alike than they thought? Annie can’t help but wonder. Cross has done terrible things, but she feels sorry for him. And...something else.   
  
_You just want to save him. Isn’t that how it always goes with you? Always playing the hero..._  
  
“You okay, Annie?” It’s Holly who snaps her out of her trance.  
  
“Yeah. Just...” How is she supposed to explain that she may be feeling something more for Cross? The heart wants what the heart wants, but what if what the heart wants isn’t healthy?  
  
“Cross spared you,” Holly says. “Y’know, he always seems to act weird around you.”  
  
“I guess he does,” Annie says.  
  
“I don’t know why. He’s a nasty bastard.”  
  
Annie doesn’t know how to suggest it’s probably not entirely the case.  
  
***  
  
When she meets Cross again, he’s taken her away from the battlefield. Holly’s shouting at him not to touch her, while firing off various and sundry expletives about Cross’ mother.   
  
“Do you want Annie Tyler to die?” he says.  
  
Holly sighs. “No.”  
  
“Good. I suppose we have something in common.” Cross rummages in his pack for some of his medical supplies, and Annie has to feel a bit of surreality that her enemy’s treating her.  
  
“Are the others...okay?” she slurs.  
  
“Yes,” Holly and Cross both say.   
  
Annie sighs. “Thank you.”  
  
Cross strokes her cheek. Annie finds she likes the touch, especially when it’s coming from someone who you would think could crush someone with his bare hands.   
  
“This is going to hurt,” Cross says grimly. “I wish I could say it won’t, but medical procedures are never pleasant.”  
  
He talks her through it, even as he smears healing gel on her wounds.  
  
“I’m sorry, Annie,” Cross says, once Holly is out of earshot. “I never wanted you hurt.”  
  
“What is going on? We’re...enemies!”  
  
Cross pauses. “I doubt I can call you an enemy. I got involved in this out of duty, but now...now my feelings aren’t so simple. I...care about you, Annie. Care for you. Even if you don’t feel the same.”  
  
Already, Annie can see the worst case scenarios. Exile. Having to kill him. Just to name two.   
  
“I should have known. Louis...what you feel for me, I feel it too.”  
  
Louis’ lips touch her forehead. They have a sort of tenderness in them that anyone who’s even heard of Louis would be shocked to see. Then, “I’ll see you in the morning, Annie.”  
  
Annie has no doubt she will.


End file.
